


Deck the Halls

by frith_in_thorns



Category: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Christmas, Coffee, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, fandomstocking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-16
Updated: 2014-03-16
Packaged: 2018-01-15 21:45:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1320286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frith_in_thorns/pseuds/frith_in_thorns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>May's first Christmas. (Set between <i>An Artificial Night</i> and <i>Late Eclipses</i>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deck the Halls

**Author's Note:**

> Written for fandomstocking; please excuse the unseasonal posting of Christmas fic in March!

"So, what do you do for Christmas?" May asked, brightly.

Toby stared at her blankly for a few seconds, and then continued her half-awake shuffle towards the coffee maker. "Why do you keep asking me questions you know the answer to? You're my Fetch. You've got my memories." She switched on the pot, having now used far more words pre-coffee than she liked.

"Well, I was sort of hoping my — _your_ — memories were wrong."

Toby groaned, and watched the coffee's progress avidly. She could already foresee a long debate. "The answer's nothing. I don't do Christmas."

"You used to," May prodded.

Toby treated her to a full-on glare. Possibly May didn't deserve that reaction, but she should also know better. "Yes. That's why I don't anymore." When she'd been playing at fitting into the mortal world she had. With her _family_. Before she spent all those years as a fish. Before she lost her husband and her little girl. She slammed the doors sharply on the unwanted memories.

"Oh," May said, temporarily deflated. "Sorry."

Toby nodded, and finally achieved coffee. She gulped down several mouthfuls, and stuck her hand absentmindedly into the nearest cereal box to grab a handful of Lucky Charms. 

"Do you want some fruit or something?" May asked, recovering her eternal optimism. 

"Nope." Toby dropped cereal pieces into her mug, ignoring May's wince, and leaned against the counter. She waited.

It didn't take long. "You know, I think we _should_ do Christmas this year," May declared. "We can invite all your friends."

Toby snorted. "Yeah, because I have so many of them."

May was undeterred by her blatant lack of enthusiasm. "We'll have a tree. And make decorations!"

Toby groaned. "I don't want a tree. And I am _not_ making decorations. Seriously, you can't even imagine how badly that would turn out."

"Oh, no," May hastened to reassure her. "I'll do all the decoration making."

"Good," Toby said, relieved. "No, wait! I haven't agreed to any part of this yet."

Her words had no effect. If May hadn't been her Fetch, Toby would have suspected a hearing difficulty. As it was, she knew that — distressingly often — May simply stopped listening. 

She guessed she would just have to prepare herself.

~

It only took a couple of days of May's silent but continuous pining before Toby gave in and bought a Christmas tree. Just a small artificial one, but May's face nonetheless lit up when she saw it. 

"Tobes!" she squeaked, and threw her arms around a startled Toby (who was, admittedly, becoming more used to that sort of thing). "We _are_ doing Christmas, then?"

Toby could feel her cheeks start to burn, and wished she hadn't dropped the illusion that would have hidden them as she'd stepped over the threshold. "I got some lights, too," she said, awkwardly. "They were half price with the tree."

She hadn't expected to get such a delighted reaction from May — it apparently rivalled her not being evicted. But her Fetch was radiating excitement. "You're the best! I'm going to start decorating right now."

Toby winced. "Um, I don't actually have any other decorations. I don't really celebrate."

"I know," May said. "Memories, remember? I'll sort it all out; you don't have to worry at all."

Although clearly meant to reassure, Toby found that statement more worrying than anything. But — every now and then she looked at her Fetch and caught a glimpse of a cheerful, sunny side of herself that showed so rarely she hardly remembered its existence. 

And May, to Toby's not-very-concealed shock, actually managed to limit herself to Christmas decorations which were, if not exactly what Toby would call _tasteful_ , did at least have taste as a distant influence. At least, there was less glitter than she had been bracing herself for, even if it came at the cost of far more paper snowflakes than she would expect one woman to have the time or patience to make.

Quentin was the first to knock on the door, only a couple of hours after sunset on Christmas day. May had bounced up to answer it, and ushered him into to the cramped living room. "Hey," he said, before he stopped short as he registered the change in the decor. "Woah. Nice snowflakes."

"May's work," Toby said. "Good to see you, kid."

"Sylvester says if you present yourself within a couple of days he and Luna have something for you," Quentin said. "And Connor says he'd really have liked to come, but…"

"Yeah," Toby agreed, and attempted not to feel deflated.

"I brought you a present, though!" Quentin said, suddenly rocking on his heels with barely-contained excitement. He thrust a gaudy package at her, covered with human-obtained Christmas wrapping paper but tied with cotton twine. "I forgot to buy any scotch tape," he explained, looking a little embarrassed. "And _no one_ in the knowe had any."

"Can I open it?" Toby asked.

"Yes!" both he and May exclaimed, simultaneously.

Toby grinned, her good humour rising up again, and unpicked the enthusiastically flamboyant knots. There was a bag of expensive coffee inside, and she gave Quentin a hug. "Good choice, kiddo. Thanks!"

"I know it's not very original…" he began.

She laughed. "Are you kidding? It's coffee. I love coffee."

"Oh, really?" May said. "If only I'd known." She held her hands up at Toby's glare. "This seems like a good time to give you _my_ present."

"Oh! I've got one for you." It was a voucher for the slightly strange salon where May had been getting sections of her hair dyed bizarre colours. 

May had gotten her a different kind of coffee. A small selection of it, actually. Toby beamed, and put the card that came with it up by the ones from Mitch and Karen, and from Marcia.

Another knock came at the door. Toby went to get it, and found Tybalt on the front step, with Raj hanging behind him. "May invited me to your party," Tybalt said, in such a way that suggested he thought she might be about to shut the door in his face. "My nephew pestered to come too."

"Sure, come in," Toby said. "Uh, it's not much of a party, really. And it's definitely not _mine_."

"Hold the door!" Danny's loud voice preceded the bridge-troll himself as he jogged to the front door, and slapped Toby on the back in greeting. "I can't stay for long, but I dropped my last fare off a couple of blocks away so I thought I'd drop by."

"It's becoming more of a party by the second, clearly," Tybalt said. "Is there food?"

"Oh yes. May recently discovered sugar cookies." Toby ushered them all inside.

Danny tapped her shoulder as she went to enter the living room after the Cait Sidhe. "Got you something," he said. "Not much, mind." He pulled a bag of coffee beans out of a cavernous pocket. "Thought you'd appreciate this."

Toby grinned. "Oh, definitely! Good choice, Danny."

The party certainly was getting into its swing now — even a few people could create that effect when they were mostly all talking at once between bites of cookies. Toby noticed that May was steadily accumulating more sparkly jewellery — obviously _she_ wasn't hard to find presents for, either.

Raj singled Toby out after a moment to get her to open his neatly-wrapped gift. Toby couldn't suppress a laugh this time, at finding yet another bag of coffee.

"Don't you like it?" Raj asked, anxiously.

"Of course I like it!" Toby reassured him, and he looked immeasurably relieved.

Tybalt came up to them, and brief concern flitted across his face as he saw what Toby was holding. "I have a gift for you as well," he said.

"Oh!" Toby said. "You didn't have to."

Tybalt just raised an eyebrow as an answer, and produced an elaborately wrapped present, tied with an extraordinarily decorative bow. Toby stared at it. "Did you do that yourself?" she asked.

"Of course," Tybalt said, sounding just the smallest bit offended. However, that wasn't the emotion he was attempting to conceal. Toby narrowed her eyes, and examined what she was holding more closely. The scent of musk and pennyroyal lingered on it.

"This is under an illusion," she accused, and this time she didn't miss the flash of guilt. "Are you playing a trick?"

Raj began to cough, in an unsuccessful attempt to mask his giggling. "I _told_ you it wouldn't work," he said.

Tybalt scowled, and released the illusion. It had been hiding the dire mess he had made of the wrapping. "Don't say anything," he growled.

Toby quirked an eyebrow, and tried to keep a straight face. It dissolved utterly when she tore the paper to reveal the boxed set of a variety of coffees. 

May groaned. "Seriously? Everyone got you the same thing?"

Toby grinned. Her friends were all wearing various expressions of resignation. "Hey, I _like_ coffee!"

"Demonstrably, we all know."


End file.
